Link: Beyoglu on NYCMag, couldn’t find real site
Menu: Dinner
Address: 1431 Third Ave., New York, NY 10028 at 81st St
Phone: 212-650-0850

Location notes:
Um, standard Upper East Side? Pretty nice, lots of restaurants in the neighborhood, fancy grocery stores, wine shops, etc. At a rather wide intersection right next to a very good Thai place also. It’s a very cozy feeling restaurant, dark and kind of candlelit in ambience. Very bistro like, old world glamour again, though with some modern twists. Either way, not too much to say about the location, pretty standard though.

Food notes:
Now we love Middle Eastern slash Turkish food. Excellent stuff, mushy, pita bread, mmmmmm good stuff. Pretty standard actually in presentation of the traditional foods, not like trying to be all fancy and mix it up, just good fooding in general. The portions are very big, they have a full bar, and Turkish beer! We didn’t try any of the alcohol because we didn’t feel like it really, but the other couple did and seemed to enjoy it. They have a meat and seafood special every day that changes, the time we went it was some kind of lamb and some kind of whole, baked fish. Sounded good but we didn’t order it. The idea though, is to go back :)

Foods tasted (taken from menu):

• Iskender Kebab – vertically grilled thinly sliced lamb & beef on a bed of pita bread, with yogurt, tomato sauce
• Karides Guvec – jumbo shrimp casserole baked with mushrooms, peppers, plum tomatoes & kashkaval cheese
• Vegetarian Platter – combination of our delicious vegetarian mezzes, including (from memory): Hummus – chick peas & tahini seasoned w/ cumin & garlic, Cacik – thick homemade yogurt, cucumbers & garlic, Patlican Salatasi – mashed eggplant salad, Kisir (Tabbuli) – cracked wheat (bulgur) salad, Zeytinyagli Ispanak – fresh spinach, shallots & dill sauteed w/ olive oil
• Some kind of dessert, don’t remember what it was, remember it was good, maybe a creme brulee?

Drinks tasted:
Some kind of Turkish beer that we didn’t taste? They had a good, full selection of stuff, and definitely worth trying the Turkish beer as its a specialty and all, just didn’t that day.

Other notes:
For the money, the service, the ambience, the location, and the general tastiness of everything, definitely a great place. I mean, entrees don’t break $20 at MOST, we’re talking just over $30 per person for dinner including large entrees, drinks, and desserts to split. The vegetarian sampler that we ordered comes in 2 different sizes, and there’s one for cold and one for hot mezzes. We tried the cold, we’ll try the hot next time. I think the best way to order is actually to take one of those large samplers to split, every one get an entree, split a couple of desserts, then drinks all around! Sounds lovely no? And definitely laid back enough to kind of just, hang out and relax through the night.

I’m also a big fan of this going out with other couples things :)

So as you’re walking on the West side of Park Ave., heading North towards Grand Central, you pass this fancy looking building having to do with Scandinavian Culture. There, there is a restaurant called the Aquavit Cafe. Incidentally, Aquavit is like aqua vitae, the water of life, and is a vodka strength infused liquor, with the most traditional ones being like caraway flavored, and is, apparently very important to the eating and drinking life style in Scandinavia. We were intrigued. So we checked out OpenTable, and lo and behold they had a restaurant week option, and it looked absolutely excellent, but was completely booked up! The other bit of confusion is that there’s actually 4 restaurants, the Aquavit Cafe, Bistro, Dining Room, and Bar and Lounge. It’s also supposedly expensive. Either way though, we thought we’d cough it up and go anyways, sans the Restaurant Week offering, which ya know, we’re not that fond of anyways as far as dinner is concerned cause the value is iffy, and we wanted to see my Emily as well, so this past Sunday, February 6, 2011, the 3 of us ate an absolutely lovely meal at the Aquavit Bistro!

I’m going to explore a little how I want to phrase these reviews, but I think an intro paragraph including the context of how it came to be that we went, then a nice, broken down list of pertinent data, then actual thoughts on the dinner, including menu highlights, etc. We’ll see how it goes?

Link: Aquavit
Menu: Bistro Menu, still including Restaurant Week offerings
Address: 65 East 55th Street New York, NY 10022, between Park and Madison Avenues
Phone: (212) 307-7311

Location notes:
The Bistro, Dining Room, and Bar and Lounge are all in the same complex and just sort of separated by natural partitions. The Cafe is on Park Ave. in like the 30s. The menu offerings are different, with the Bar and Lounge offering the same menu as the Bistro, and the Dining Room is all tasting menus and much more expensive. We’re thinking of paying up for that one day as well. It’s on the North side of 55th St., and kinda hard to see as it’s tucked back from the sidewalk underneath an office building.

Food notes:
Obviously, EXCELLENT. I got Swedish Meatballs! :) Everything was lovingly plated, a beauty to look at, flavorful and rich, though simple in concept like, Swedish Meatballs! Their mixed drinks are also very excellent, using those home made Aquavits of theirs of which they have over a dozen different flavors. They offer a Aquavit tasting flight, but we never got around to them as the drinks we ordered were plentiful, strong, and delicious.

Foods tasted (taken from menu):

• SWEDISH MEATBALLS – potato purée, pickled cucumber, lingonberries, cream sauce
• SAGE-ROASTED PENOBSCOT CHICKEN BREAST – baked wild mushroom and napa cabbage, sage butter sauce
• SCANDINAVIAN BOUILLABAISSE – cod, scallops, shrimp, mussels, parsley aioli
• SAUTÉED SPINACH – cipollini onions, roasted garlic
• KLADDKAKA – chocolate cake, citrus salad, dulce de leche cream

Drinks tasted (taken from menu):

• SPICY MANGO MARTINI – spicy mango aquavit, fresh mango purée, fresh lime juice, served straight up
• WHITE COSMOPOLITAN – Aquavit NYC, orange liquor, white cranberry juice, fresh lime juice, served straight up
• Pripps Carnegie Porter, Sweden (16.9 oz)

Other notes:
As I said before, everything was excellent, and it wasn’t even that expensive! We were more than properly fooded, had large entrees, a side and dessert, and fancy drinks each, and we came out to just about $50 per person. Well worth it if nothing else. And what’s special, if you go now and/or soon, they give each person a $50 gift certificate useable the next time you eat dinner there! It’s limit 1 per table, but there’s no minimum you have to order, and there’s no menu items it doesn’t apply to. So we’re thinking like, we can eat elsewhere then get a fancy drink each and a dessert to split and effectively spend nothing! Or, we can just go again and it’ll be 1/3 cheaper! The options are limitless! And if 3 of us go, and get the $35 per person Restaurant Week offering and a drink, the drink’s effectively free also and the Restaurant Week offering is 3 courses! Oh so good! Definitely going back, even thinking about going for our Anniversary, and Emily’s even thinking of going for their Anniversary! And though this is the last restaurant we’ve eaten at, I think it’s an excellent entry into the Restaurant Reviews series. Should I take photos and post them next time? Obviously this won’t work for the places we’ve been to, but it might work going forward…

Many more to come :)

Last I wrote we were still in China. We had just finished packing up and shipping 8 boxes to Maria’s parents house in Ohio. Not all too much happened after that. We finished packing into suitcases, cleaned the apartment up as best as we could, left a whole bunch of empty suitcases, chocolates, posters, and maps for my father to deal with, closed our Chinese cell phone and internet and apartment telephone accounts, gave my cousin free reign to root through our pantry and kitchen for any leftover non-perishables we had left like flats of coke and sprite and diet coke left over from the party, and were hauled by said cousin also in the middle of the night in his Nissan versa hatch back that luckily fit all our luggage because we ended up being one piece over anyways to the Beijing Capital airport for our flight back to our home, the good old US of A, quite possibly in the end, the best place to live in the world. And this is sort of a rant here but I’ve been reading many articles online touting the possibilities and progressiveness of countries in Africa and Asia and how they’re the next frontier for science and technology because they don’t have the vestiges of old industry and commerce in place already so it’s easier and quicker for them to innovate and it’ll be better for all of us if the States would just be more like them but you know, those columnist tools don’t have a clue what they’re talking about and it’s so obvious they’ve never lived or even set foot in these countries that they speak of so fondly and that if they had spent any decent amount of time in these countries they’d know that well, it’s just not true, and the States is just, for all its faults and there are many, better. Let’s leave it at that.

The flight was painless, despite the blizzards that were happening across the Northeast, and after a relaxing layover after much careful scrutiny of my computer parts and electronics filled carry on by the TSA we landed very much on time indeed in Toledo, barely minutes before Maria’s parents arrived to pick us up in the van we will soon, and have as I write, inherit. And I realized that I’m not entirely in control of who reads this blog and all and that some of these faceless masses out there may actually include my parents perish the thought, but though I had the option I didn’t want to go back to LA and spend the holidays there. It was so nice being in Ohio. In no particular order, here is what we did:

• Visited my Emily in Cleveland and had lunch at a Irish pub, went to the Cleveland Museum of Art, and had coffee at one of the local hippie chain coffeeshops.
• Ate at Wilson’s (the Findlay burger joint that all the local politicians go to for photo ops), ate at Olive Garden with Maria’s Sarah, ate at Cracker Barrel with Maria’s Sarah and family (still my favorite country restaurant that’s distressingly absent from both the Eastern and Pacific timezones), ate at Mendoza’s (a wonderful hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant that’s apparently been there since Maria was in high school though she never knew about it), ate at Marie’s (a breakfast and lunch only place with wonderful skillets), ate at Dietz’s (I think I spelled that right but they have marshmallow topping for their ice cream), ate fancy pizza with Maria’s Sarah again to ring in the New Year, ate at Oller’s (and survived!).
• Walked around town.
• Had a lovely Christmas meal with Maria’s family after picking her grandmother up from Ada (think ONU)
• Decided seriously whether or not it was worth buying an entire, historic building in downtown Findlay (the Finder’s Records building) for 650K negotiable. In the flood zone, yes, empty since the 1960s, yes, in need of extensive renovation, yes, probably flood damaged from 2007, yes, but it’s HUGE and (in my mind) CHEAP! I’m thinking PBL headquarters come 2012 or 2014.
• Visited Maria’s Sarah at the library and decided I need to get a library card one of these days.
• Received lemon bars by mail.
• Saw Tron: Legacy as a matinee at the Carmike.
• And probably many more things that I now forget.

As I mentioned, we spent New Years with Maria’s Sarah, watched the whole TV thing, sent my Emily a text message. It was, in short, a lovely week.

We drove to NYC on January 2, 2011, officially starting this new, probably wonderful, chapter of our lives, and I think I have it in me to finish off and bring everything, in writing, up to date.

As we drove, and it’s a drive I’ve done many times in the past as well though we were thankful that my old GPS Daniel still worked like a charm (but I should update his maps), we listened to Maria’s MCLE, which is a lawyer thing having to do with the requirement that she keep up to date on new changes and issues in the law. Honestly, interesting, surprisingly. We made good time and met with France’s brother Jamey at our current home on East 75th St., lugged everything upstairs into our albeit small but currently exceptionally comfortable studio apartment, then drove the car down to our parking garage located on East 40th St. We got a good deal. Since then, and in no particular order, we’ve:

• Walked the blocks between 40th and 75th St. and 2nd and Madison Ave. countless times as we’ve explored, met with recruiters, took interviews, wandered, etc.
• Signed me up with 2 recruiting agencies who as it turns out are owned by the same parent company so lo and behold was I surprised when I could login to both sites after having only created one account with them but that’s a long paragraph for later, oh and took many interviews with them as well.
• Toured the Harvard Club, which we are eager to join.
• Went to the Costco up at the Stew Leonard in my old stomping grounds to pick up some non-perishable essentials (like Gatorade) and get Maria an eye exam and glasses/contacts prescriptions, got some stuff for my Emily, then did our laundry at good old Greystone Ave. (yeah our current complex doesn’t have a laundry facility).
• Switched us over to a non-contract family plan with T-Mobile and bought Maria a G2 cell phone, and since we don’t have internet you will not believe how much data we’ve been chugging through on the tether, I’m talking gigs…but it’s good to be on proper phone plans again, this whole pay-as-you-go thing is way overrated.
• Bought Maria a new laptop! A giant, 17+ inch Dell (yes, we’re switching back to PC from Mac, and Maria is loving it), and spent much time geting everything installed and copied over and put into place and customized so that it’s usable, and we’re not done yet, still have her iTunes and iPhoto libraries to copy over.
• Scoped out the neighborhood and went on delivery/takeout menu hunts with much success.
• Watched TV (on the computer)
• I’ve been on 5 job interviews with 3 more planned for the next couple of days, and more, and Maria’s been very successful at getting feedback on contract/temporary lawyer work in NYC.
• Maria’s been loving her runs here and is getting back in shape and into her normal running routine, and we even have a half marathon planned in the next 2 weeks! The NYC Half Marathon!
• Given our penchant for walking, we managed to go an entire week without buying a metrocard! At one point I walked over 100 blocks getting from interview to interview before I finally gave in and we’ve ridden it only twice so far. I guess we may not need to get monthly passes just yet.
• And like before, I’m equally sure many more things probably that I’ve just forgotten but there are so many more things in the works like visiting Maria’s Emily up in Boston this weekend and mini golfing. Oh, and can’t wait until Frances is back ’cause we’re gonna do a little house warming party. It’s gonna rock this world.

Things to do though include getting involved in music again, ultimately finding a job and the right apartment for the job (hopefully one with either a balcony, patio, garden, or all of the above so that I can have a fire pit), the continued administration of our business, purchasing a NAS, really getting settled and back in the groove of seeing friends especially and I’m serious when I say I want this to stick.

And this is just a mental note to me so that I don’t forget about it all, but man, these recruiters, these companies, these non-contract jobs, whoo what a riot they are! (hint hint)

Oh and I want to implement a new design for the blog. A new design for the new year. A new design for the new city that we are living in. Expect it soon. And that’s a wrap!

It’s been a busy month though, to my credit. The last entry was just before we decided to head back to the States again. What happened was, on the 18th of November, my visa proper expired, as in, no more entries, no more time in China, do not pass go, if you stay in the country you will go to jail and you do not want to go to a Chinese prison. So right around my 27th birthday (yes, that happened also on November 15th), we left. It took a bit to figure out where best to go, but we decided on NYC. Maria processed her student visa there, it’s close to her sister and nephews, I have lots of very good friends there as well, so it seemed the most logical choice. We even managed to secure a nice place of our own to stay in through friends we made in Beijing of all places, a lovely young couple passing through when I still ran that restaurant way back when, and whom we visited in Hong Kong over the summer. Lots of other things happened though while we were in NYC, but I’m not sure I’m allowed to tell you yet. But Maria and I had a lovely time there, and we had even said that we should go to NYC together, spend some time wandering around a city that in the end, I love.

After that, we actually succeeded in me getting my work visa, but now had to apply for a residency permit. We made a last minute decision to stay on through Thanksgiving since it was just around that time anyway, and hitched a ride with my Emily out to Maria’s parents place in OH. I’ll get around to why we decided to extend our trip later, when I’m allowed to, but suffice it to say we wanted to, and it was lots of fun, and involved good food, good times with her parents and family, midnight shopping with her best friend on Black Friday, and more. I’m glamorizing right now, what happened that is, because it’s the best way to do it while being much too warm and cramped on this bunk bed in the train.

We did go back to China though, it was inevitable, and I had my Beijing IFC concert, which was a success, immediately after which I had this past concert in Shanghai. So you see, I’ve really been rather busy!

November 15 – 27th Birthday
November 16 – Fly to NYC to get China work visa
November 21 – Decide to extend our trip in the States through Thanksgiving
November 27 – Fly back to Beijing
December 5 – IFC Beijing concert
December 7 – Take train to Shanghai for IFC Shanghai concert
December 10 – IFC Shanghai concert
December 12 – IFC Shanghai concert
December 12 (now) – Take train back to Beijing from Shanghai

You see, busy! Plus we had flaky internet the entire time, really put our tether through the ropes. And now I think I’m feeling motion sick, so I’m going to stop. There will be more though, and photos, and Core WordPress updates, and tagging this post since the tether’s being flaky. All in good time.

Today, as in Saturday the 12th, was our going away party at Craig and Becky’s. I got us catered food from Rubio’s, good fish tacos. We drank a lot, watched the USC vs. OSU game, played Partini (think Cranium but with an alcoholic drink theme, no actual alcohol consumption), watched Wipeout, which I think Maria very adequately described as an audience participation show, had cake, and that was that as well. We took a couple of photos, swapped personal email addresses, exchanged girl and man hugs, and were on our way yet again.

I really don’t think it’s hit yet. I think it will, and soon, and I might freak out a bit, but it’ll be a good kind of freak out. We’re exceptionally glad we did not wait for my father to return to China with us because it looks like he’ll be going back a full week after we had originally wanted to. Our priorities the first bit or so in China will be to find a way to watch the USC games, get an apartment, find a way to workout consistently, find a Chinese school, and get jobs. I don’t expect it’ll be too difficult. But if we had stayed and waited, I think I might have gone stir crazy. Much better this way; I can focus on being…focused.

Saw Niki today for brunch at Urth Cafe. Sorry you got a parking ticket… She seemed well and happy, so I’m happy for her. At this point the best I can hope for for any of the good friends I’m leaving behind is due diligence on my part to keep and stay in touch. It’ll be important.

Ah and most importantly, Maria successfully sold her car today!

Tomorrow will be a fairly lazy day, thankfully. Not much on the agenda, though there’s some digital shuffling that we’ll want to do, some football to watch, and maybe getting together with Kelly and Sarah.

We successfully got our Visas, good for 60 days at a time, 4 times a year, so effectively we can stay there for 8 months even if we really mess up our longer term Visas; we’ll just have to leave and come back in to the country every two months. Supposedly it’s good enough to even just go to Hong Kong and back. Or I’m thinking we can use this as an excuse to take a vacation every two months. Although, ideally still, we should have year long Visas that can be renewed without leaving the country. It’s just hard not thinking about vacation! Even though I’m desperately POOR! But my credit’s doing real good now that I’ve gotten most of my debts paid off.

This countdown may actually be a little in accurate now, and there may not be anything I can do about it. My father would like us to travel back to China with him. He gets to the states on the 15th, and he’s “thinking” of returning “most likely” on the 23rd. Completely uncertain though! Apparently, and I don’t think I’ve ever had to do this before, I wonder if it’s a new policy, but we’ll need to be registered with the local police station when we get there, and it’ll be easier with my father, which I don’t doubt. I just don’t want to delay our departure anymore than I have to. By that point I won’t have a job anymore so it’s not like I can work some more and make some more money. We’d have finished our last US vacation as well. We’ll basically be completely ready but sitting on our hands still. Not a very pleasant proposition I don’t think.

Our “farewell” party will also be next weekend, sometime. It was originally supposed to be this weekend, but I guess that didn’t pan out. Hopefully, it’ll be at my boss’ home, with some work friends, and the few friends I’ve left in LA. Maria’s going to be seeing some of her last friends next week, and I think tomorrow we’re heading down to Orange County to see one of them. It almost doesn’t feel real.

I’ll need to see my mother, at some point, before I leave. I’m thinking next week, during the week may be appropriate. It’s all wrapping up really, and I don’t have much exciting to say at the moment. Maria and I’s conversations are continually and exceptionally wonderful slash insightful. I can’t really wait until we get to China and we have a whole new slew of stuff to talk about.

I don’t think this post will be long. The details have mostly been squared away. I got new glasses today, which should prove an interesting change. Tomorrow Maria’s getting our Visas along with my step mother, and she’ll make an inquiry phone call to a travel agent about one way tickets to China and to the health insurance agent to settle our international health care plans. I’m actually beginning to think that maybe we won’t need US insurance per se anymore; there seems to at least be the possibility that while in China we’ll be able to get decently good Chinese insurance for much cheaper. But this will suffice for now.

It’s close. So very close. And I’m giddy, and a little sad. And nostalgic. I think I’ve been dreaming about California, even though it’s very, very hot. Maria’s going to schedule some final social events, meet ups with the last of her friends whom she’s yet to say good bye to. I have some similar things to do as well. And before you know it, we’ll be gone.

Completely irrelevant to anything regarding the actual “meat and potatoes” of this post, I have a suspicion that the Blogger suite of sites, particular its Javascript and maybe some of the $_SESSION options, don’t work with the latest version of Firefox on a Mac. Granted it’s just a suspicion, but it’s very buggy how it does or more importantly does not work very smoothly. I’m using my desktop right now and the entire user experience is just so much better.

Also sort of irrelevant, I feel as if I’m almost just cruising through my days, and that each one of them kind of swings on by with a surreal tinge, like I’m watching myself live my life, day to day. It’s definitely related to how close I, we, are to leaving, my own envy related to Maria’s not having to work anymore, and a general sort of distractedness due to all the logistics involved in making the upcoming move a reality. Not that it won’t be a reality, that much is guaranteed, but more that it’s all almost overwhelming in some ways that as far as my actual work is concerned, I just can’t seem to be that concerned. Not that I’m slacking off at work, or doing any less than the best that I can; it’s just lost some of its glamor.

More irrelevant, but at least short: Google runs my life, and though a little narcissistic and probably creepy, I’m listening to my own music as I write this.

Relevantly, my trip back East and to OH was a HUGE success. Mmmmm and I just can’t help it with my silly references…Nonetheless, it was so. The flights out to NYC went by without a hitch. My aunt dropped me off at the airport on the day of, which would be last Thursday, everything was on time, and my Emily picked me up from LGA. New York was hot. And humid. Much more so than I remembered. Apparently it was also thunder storming, but thanks no doubt to my arrival, all that stopped. The days were beautiful, but hot and humid. Sweating up a storm. Reminds me of the stories I’ve heard of India in the summers; three showers a day.

Friday was spent first at SLC where I said “hi” to as many of the people that were there that I knew, saw the new food service provider, whose offerings look very appetizing, did a minor bit of networking care of my Emily, then lunch at Wild Ginger, where I’ve had lunch so many times yet its allure never diminishes. They’ve made a couple of changes, not altogether bad ones at that. Then it was a hop on to the subway to go to the Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History to watch the star show, as narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. Yup. So much fun :)

Dinner was at Citrus, the Spanish/Japanese fusion place, where due to my not enjoying sushi in most forms I had a nice angel hair pasta. We also discovered that though my friends claim to be sushi eaters, they do not appreciate the as I’m told finer sides of sushi that entails such “delicacies” as Uni or sea urchin roe.

I also realized on that trip that I have no idea what “Combos” are, and still don’t (Sorry Emily! I promise to eat them soon!). I do have a bag of such though and they’re sitting on my desk.

Some hanging out on my Emily’s floor, watching Seinfeld, watching Warlock play Street Fighter 4 ended the evening, and Saturday was off to the airport. Now the original plan had been to hop on an Amtrak and make my way up to first Boston then RI where I had wanted to visit with Maria’s Emily and her husband and their newborn nephews. Not that I don’t still want to, but the logistics involved in making that particular leg of my journey East and to OH a reality proved beyond my abilities, for the time being. I would still like to meet them, and obviously Maria enjoyed her time there a lot, and I plan to, but that will have to wait until another day.

I made it to OH without a hitch, even flying through ORD. And I’m only realizing now that these posts may make more sense if I provided things like external links. I’m not about to go through this currently exceptionally lengthy post and make the links, but at least going forward, if I remember, where appropriate, they may surface. Um, but OH. Ohio is quite beautiful. I half joked that I enjoyed it for its fields, its grass, the low laying hills, small streams and rivers, very Shire like. The other half of it well, I really do enjoy it. My Sarah made an interesting point that part of the appeal of living in places like the Mid-West may be to get away from all that is hectic about living in the big cities, and that the simplicity it offers may be a true comfort, and that though this sounds very appealing, it may be in a way be viewed as giving up on the complications. Still.

I was picked up from Toledo, OH by Maria and her Sarah, who was a lovely person and who had a lovely daughter. Findlay itself I found very appealing on a couple of levels. The homes were gorgeous, the “downtown” historic and very walkable, the cicadas or as they call them “locusts” very soothing. And you know I have the same feelings about NYC, minus the simplicity. Sitting with my Emily outside the Museum of Natural History and people watching, then walking the Upper West Side falls under the category of things I’ve enjoyed most in my life. OH! And we got tea, at Alice’s Tea House (Thanks to Kimmie), where I managed to enjoy that elusive specter of fresh made scones and clotted cream. Delicious.

I finally got to meet Maria’s parents, which was tremendous. They have a lovely house by the way, very Mid-West in my romanticized mind. They took me to Dietz’s (I hope I spelled that right) where we got ice cream. Maria’s bringing me caramels too :). We then walked to the tail end of a hot air balloon festival, and though there were none in the air by that time, that would have been the first time I’ve ever seen them, and I was excited. Maria and I then walked up Main St., literal “Main St.,” not “proverbial” or “metaphorical” in any way. We passed a couple of bars where they were playing a game that involved tossing sandbags into a hole a little bit away…I don’t understand. We walked to a coffee house where Maria had OH Boba. It was attached to a bookstore that had an entire section devoted to “old” books, the sorts of books with character. We sat on big comfy couches, drinking our respective drinks, watching the street outside. It was freezing in there. One thing I will say is that though purported to be worse, OH was actually much less warm and humid than NYC, surprisingly, but with all places that do get warm and humid in the summers, they love their AC, and blow up a storm. And though my feet were killing me by then, we walked around the University of Findlay, which has a lovely campus and one of those picturesque calendar worthy main slash original buildings. Apparently they specialize in mineralogy and toxic waste removal.

On Sunday Maria’s mother was kind enough to make Zuppe Toscana, that wonderful soup of potatoes and cream and Italian sausage they make at the Olive Garden. She was kind enough to send us the recipe and so I shall be making it, vegetarian of course for Maria, but maybe with those properly spiced tofu Italian sausages they have in the fancy vegetarian sections of the grocery stores, the idea being that the veggie version was lacking some spice.

I was supposed to leave on Sunday. Maria’s cousin dropped by and offered to take us to the airport, not that Maria was leaving with me yet, but they wanted to catch up, and we all chatted in the car and once again, a lovely person.

We get to Toledo airport, I say my goodbyes, I try to check in to my flight, and it’s canceled. All flights in and out of ORD are canceled. Bah! And the reason behind such inconsideration, “weather.” I had two choices: they would pay for a taxi to take me to Detroit where there was a “chance” that I “may” be able to get on a flight that will get me in Monday afternoon, late for work anyways. My other choice was to rebook for the same set of flights, 24 hours later. I opted for the second since it looked like I was going to be missing work no matter what.

Hmmmmmm, and it appears I’m getting things confused. Zuppe Toscana was Monday’s lunch, my last meal in OH. Sunday was Panera, my first and only experience there, and they had lovely iced tea and an equally lovely clientele. After that we went driving around Findlay and its outskirts. Lots of country side, things that amazed this particular city boy. Things like fields of corn and soy beans :) We also made our way over to the reservoir which was large enough to have boats sail on, then over to a local park with a boardwalk around a man made lake. I don’t know why, but I have an affinity for man made bodies of water. It actually really reminds me of China, and were I not so sure that I was in OH, I would have been able to convince myself that we were in one of the palaces in Beijing.

So after my flight was canceled, back to the original chronology of the story, we went to a Chinese fast food place and all sat around chatting. Maria’s mother was there as she had gone to Toledo to visit the mall to do a little shopping before she has lunch with the governor of OH. Neat. So though annoying, I managed to get an extra night with my Maria, in OH. I suppose worth it ;)

The next day we slept in; we needed it. Maria had had very little sleep while in RI with her Emily and the twins, and I, well, don’t know how to take care of myself heh. I was also determined to get back to LA no matter what. And to that end, I was relatively successful, as successful as is possible I suppose given the circumstances. My flight that was supposed to depart at 6pm didn’t leave until 9pm. I got in quite late, and had an interesting experience catching a cab in LA. I think that would be only my second time ever in one in LA. I walked up and down the terminal a good while before I figured out what I was supposed to do, which was join the relatively long line all waiting for a cab.

So, in short, I would like to call that a success. I’m a little distracted right now with something that’s come up with work, so I hope it’s not too apparent that I’m rushing a little to get this post finished. But as always, I hope to write more tomorrow.

I also got to see my Emily. I’m making the distinction here because Maria’s Emily is her sister, the one with the twins, not to be confused with mine, the one in NYC. I also got to see Charlie, Kimmie, and a whole slew of people I hadn’t seen in a while, all of whom I really wanted to see, so, again, in short, the trip was a relatively huge success. The only minor hiccup would be that my flight back to LA was canceled due to “weather” in Chicago. This accounts for why I’m a day later than I originally thought and much more exhausted than I originally thought, which is why I’m going to end it for now, to continue tomorrow.

Also, I think my countdown’s getting a little out of hand. I think the new date of departure is going to be September 21st, 2009. Not to say that September 11th, 2009 is not of equal importance. That WILL be my last day at work. Ah I also got to see my Sarah, again the distinction being that Maria’s Sarah is her best friend who lives in OH, and some other people, and it’s just been so busy I can’t seem to end this shortly though I ever so badly want to.